


Tooth & Mind Decay

by enjolraspermittedit



Series: refresh [3]
Category: Octet - Malloy
Genre: ADHD Henry, Autistic Henry, Candy Crush, Cookie Clicker - Freeform, Gen, Mild Suicide Ideation, video game addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 12:50:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enjolraspermittedit/pseuds/enjolraspermittedit
Summary: All of the games that Henry likes have candy in them. Candy is sweet and he isn't so keen on giving this up.If you struggle with the same problems as Henry, read with caution, the way that I describe the video games might trigger! Also, read the tags. His thoughts are very jumbled and I think that Henry is a perfect example of nonlinear recovery so I tried my best to show that here.





	Tooth & Mind Decay

Henry was doing good, at least by his own standards. He had gone on a date last weekend with a new guy, and it had gone really well. He still snuck the occasional game now and then, but it was much better than it had been when Saul first invited him to the meetings. He actually looked forward to the meetings in a way, especially with all of the progress that he had been making lately. He was the first to arrive today, so he poured himself a cup of coffee while waiting for the group.

He was tempted to use his phone to pass the time, but that was forbidden, of course. Even if he didn't play any games, technology was not allowed inside the building. Most people kept their phones in their cars or at home, but Henry actually kept his at the bottom of his backpack. It was turned completely off and the battery was low, so it wouldn't serve much use anyway. 

Henry fidgeted in his seat as the group filed in. He cheerfully greeted the rest of them, the rest of his friends. He was really excited to talk today - so much that he wanted to jump right in before the meeting even started. He did that a lot, and he had a tendency to cut people off too. It was never his intent to be rude; it was a habit that he couldn't help. And unlike his gaming addiction, there wasn't much that could be done about it, but that was okay.

In the middle of the first hymn, someone new entered the room, and Henry introduced himself to her once the hymn was over. Henry remembered his first meeting, how bad he'd been doing at the time. He could barely even make it through the meeting without having an almost uncontrollable urge to fish out his phone and play Candy Crush in front of everyone. The thought sounded funny when expressed aloud, but it served as proof of a deep underlying problem.

Once it was Henry's turn to talk, he excitedly told the group about his date over the past weekend. Of course, the talk about his date lead into a talk about his addiction. The games were a good distraction from life - mindless and fun and sweet. Henry took pride in himself - he could play anywhere and at any time. Even at work! He was great at being able to sneak on his phone. The meetings were the only place that he didn't, but he was tempted to at times.

He remembered that he was supposed to be doing better - and he was, he really true was! - so he calmed down a bit, willing himself to stop talking about just how amazing all of his candy games were. He'd just broken a rule of the group. No one was supposed to be explicit about what platforms or programs that they were addicted to. Henry felt a bit guilty, but he couldn't control himself - it was so easy for him to go out on a tangent and infodump about his video games.

Luckily, no one in the group was upset or mad at him. In fact, they all thanked him for his story and congratulated him on the progress that he had been making recently. He hadn't completely given up the games just yet and he had no idea if he ever could, but he definitely felt less dependent on them. Maybe that could be his goal...rather than giving them up completely, he could just give up his addiction to them. Surely that was possible? Paula always said that addiction was rarely the core issue, and that it almost always stemmed from something else. That was the one thing that Henry couldn't figure out, what his "something else" was. 

He thought of himself as a happy person, definitely more optimistic than some other people in the group. He believed that he was less depressed than the rest of them - he only passively wanted to die, for example. Wasn't that a good thing? Henry noticed that he was so lost in his own thoughts that he had blocked out the rest of the discussion. He hoped that no one had tried to talk to him. He fidgeted to try to keep his focus, and he realized that his hands were making the same movements that they did in his games. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? He looked around the room, realizing that no one was looking at him. They were all looking at Paula, who was telling her own story now. Right, right, Paula. Her and her husband were both addicts. Henry remembered that. He breathed in deeply a few times to try to compose himself. 

He looked over at the bag where his phone was. He didn't need that, he told himself. He noticed that Velma was looking at him out of the corner of his eye, so he smiled at her briefly before turning his attention back to Paula. This was fine, he would be fine. He hadn't gone crazy just yet.

**Author's Note:**

> I really am cranking these out, huh? I think I made this one more about Henry's ADHD than his addiction, but only because I think he doesn't realize that the two are actually connected.  
> (ADHD isn't technically a canon disorder that he has, but I have it and I love him and I think he did a lot of things that people with ADHD do.)  
> Twitter - @RomanasVilla  
> Tumblr - @8tet


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